We'll have to see how well a base loaded vertical works regionally. Not very is my guess. :-) I'm seeing a wire dipole strung between our lonely tree and the house in my future. You guys and your expensive fancy NVIS doohickeys. A plain old dipole put under 1/4 wavelength over ground will have over 45 degrees critical angle, crappy for DX perfect for local. All of it's energy is put straight up between 120 and 60 degrees, easily 6 dB down beyond 30 degrees. I might also just get a second 40m Hamstick and mount them as a dipole on my bike repair stand in the backyard. Oh, wait, I have that transit base that Nakman gave me, that would be perfect.

I have the 857D too! I guess that makes three of us. BTW-don't rely in the double sided sticky tape for mounting the face plate (DAMHIK)

It's really a pretty limited range of choices in this class, seems to come down to the FT-857D, Icom 706 and Icom 7000. Seeing as the Icom 706 is +$250 and now discontinued and the 7000 is +$500 (albeit a SUPER radio), that leaves the 857 for limited budgets. Having this on the horizon is why I made the decision on that other thing, Jeff.